


Lady in Red

by icarus_chained



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Attraction, Detective Noir, F/F, Female Homosexuality, Femslash, Film Noir, First Time, Friendship, Hopeful Ending, Monologue, One Night Stands, Prompt Fic, Realisation, Self-Acceptance, Support
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 07:12:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5819143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the Third Rail, Ellie Perkins gets her noir monologue on, realises a few things about herself, and sets out to get a date with the woman of her suddenly-realised dreams. Magnolia may not be for keeps, but she sure shows a gal the way around her sexuality in style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lady in Red

**Author's Note:**

> And again, for a [prompt](http://falloutkinkmeme.livejournal.com/6855.html?thread=17654983#t17654983) on the kink meme. I like Ellie the noir-detective-in-training, and what's more classic than the detective and the lounge singer? There's a bit of Nick/Nate in the background, but Nick's mostly there to support Ellie. Heh.

I never figured it'd be Goodneighbour, of all places, that finally showed me who I really was. Way I'd heard it, the place was more where people went to _lose_ than find themselves. Guess that's just the kinda gal I am, though. Finding myself in all the wrong places.

It was my first time in Goodneighbour. It's a mean road from Diamond City for somebody who doesn't shoot so good, and the boss was always pretty protective of me. It's really sweet, if maybe just a little bit hypocritical. If only he was that protective of himself, but I guess he's had some help in that regard lately. Have to say I'm pretty happy about that, especially when that help put in a good word for getting me outta town. It ain't that I don't like Diamond City. I love the place. It's my city, my home. But a gal likes to get out and about a time or two as well, ya know? See what she's been missin' about the world. Nate promised he'd come along, get me and the boss there in one piece, no harm no foul. Boss wasn't happy about it, but between Nate's promise and my puppy-dog eyes, he caved soon enough. He always did give in to a pretty girl with a sad face.

And then there I was. Down at the Third Rail, further from home than I'd been in a long time, and lookin' at something that turned my world upside down.

_Like an earthquake, startin' to roll, I felt my world shake, out of control / Like a world war, started to brew, baby, it's just you._

Her name was Magnolia. She was a singer. Of course she was. That's a cliche, huh? But then, somethin's in the stories often enough, maybe there's a reason for it.

I'd always thought I liked boys. Well, you're supposed to, aren't ya? Girls like boys and boys like girls. Though I guess the boss and Nate shoulda showed me the lie on that one. It's just that Nick's ... _Nick_ , ya know? He's different, he always was. He wasn't ever gonna have what ya'd call a typical romance. I figured I wasn't quite that special. Down to earth Ellie, nothin' anyone'd look twice at. To be fair, I'd never really looked twice at anyone else, either. 

I was kinda figuring out why just then. I don't know why Magnolia, why her and none of the other girls I'd seen back home in Diamond City. I don't know. Maybe you gotta get outside the familiar places before you can start understanding unfamiliar feelings? All I know is, the sight of her, the sound of her voice, they hit me like a vertibird fallin' outta the sky. 

She had a red dress on, a low cut, sparkly thing that didn't make it down to her knees. I think it was her knees I was starin' at the most. Maybe it oughta have been her eyes, tired and warm in the lights, or her hair, dark and abrupt around her face. Maybe it oughta have been her voice, because she had one hell of a voice. I mean, I did notice that. It was the kind of voice that'd drink you in, drink you down. I'd heard the boss talk about that kind of voice, in his more reminiscent, philosophical moments, but I never really thought that kind of thing was real. Magnolia'd proved me wrong there, right enough. 

It was her knees, though. Above all else, I think it was her knees, pale and bare in the stage lights, and how they pointed the way up into the red darkness under her dress. I think I must have flushed, even as I thought it. I don't think I'd ever had a thought like that before, not about anybody. But I sure had it then.

"Ellie?" Nick asked, low and gentle from beside him. I must have blinked, lookin' over at his rumpled, concerned face, blushing all the brighter for it. He took my arm, real gentle like, and asked me if I was all right.

It took me a minute to find my voice. I mean, how do you put words to a realisation like that? How to you tell the guy who's been there for you all your life that a bolt of lightnin' just hit ya, and you're not sure you're still the same person ya were half an hour before? It's not the easiest thing in the world to get off your tongue. 

This was _Nick_ , though. Lookin' at me, his eyes all gentle and yellow and warm, same as they'd been since I'd started workin' for him. Nick, who always looked at you like you could tell him anything, like you could trust him with the deepest, darkest parts of yourself and he'd never let ya down. I don't know if I could have told anybody but him. Not right then, not for the first time. But Nick was Nick. There's nothing I wouldn't trust with Nick.

"... I think I'm having an awakening, boss," I managed, all dazed and startled-like, and he blinked at me. First at me, and then over at the stage, the siren temptress with her voice like a heart throb still singing there. When he looked back, his eyebrows had crawled all the way up under his hat, but he didn't look mad. Bemused, mostly, and maybe a little bit tickled by the irony of it. My first time outta town, lady detective-in-training, and I fall for the smoky-tongued singer straight outta the gate. I could kinda see the humour in it myself.

"Well," he said, shaking his head with a wry smile on his lips. "Ya got classy taste in dames, I'll give ya that much. If you gotta have an awakening about anybody, I guess you sure could do a whole lot worse."

I laughed at that, more relief than anything, and middle of the laugh my own knees decided to soften out from under me. Shock, relief, reality hitting home, I still don't know. Nick caught me handily, steered me over to a bar stool with an arm around my shoulder. Nate looked over at us curiously, a little worriedly, and Nick quietly shook his head. Flicked his hand, sent Nate over thatta way. Just him and me, and my sudden awakening. Guess I was pretty glad about that. I was so red, I could rival Magnolia's dress. Nate fussin' over me too woulda been more than I could stand.

Not that Nick was quite done fussin' himself, but at least Nick was quiet about it. He's good like that, my boss. Always has been. He ordered me a beer, set it gently in my hand, and waited until I was done blushing to talk about it.

"You gonna do anything about it?" he asked mildly, after a little bit. He smiled at my not-quite-muffled squeak, scratched his nose when I looked at him. "Now, I mean. I'm just wonderin', kid. If it's too new, you don't gotta, but if you want to try it out, see how you really feel about it, there might be ... ah, a couple of things you might need ta know?"

I swear to god, my ears about caught fire. "Oh, _god no_ ," I spluttered, hiding my face behind my hands and peering out at him in horror between my fingers. "Nicky, if you're thinking about tryna give me the birds and the bees, I _swear to god_ \--"

"No!" he said, sharp and equally horrified, but he was bustin' a gut laughing at the same time. "Jeez, Ellie, no. I'm not ... No, darlin'. Well, I mean ... if you had any questions ... Aw hell. I think I need somethin' stronger than beer if we're going to be continuing this particular conversation."

"Then how 'bout we _don't_ ," I suggested, prim and icy, and then had to giggle some myself. God, that just ... What a thought, ya know? I mean, Nick Valentine tryna tell me about ... No, all right? Just, all kinds of no. Definitely pass on that one, thank you. I'd never be able to look him in the eye again, and we had to _work_ together. Jeez. 

Once we were done snickering at each other like a coupla kids, though, he turned serious again. He does that. Goes from funny to smilin' sad in the blink of an eye. He chewed on his lip a bit, which probably ain't wise give how banged up it was already, and set his bottle back down on the bar for a bit. I think I swallowed. Nick being serious has that effect.

"I know this probably ain't my place," he said quietly, reaching out to curl his hand gently around mine. Reassuring, like he always tried to be. "I'm not gonna get in your way or try to tell you things you already know, Ellie. I know you're smarter than that. I'm just gonna say, if it's Magnolia you got your heart set on ... I heard some things, okay? She's a nice lady. A real classy dame. But she's not the permanent type, if you follow me. If you ask her, and she likes you, she'll show you a hell of a time by all accounts. That'll be it, though, 'less you got somethin' nobody else has had. Some people are like that. I never saw anything wrong with that, so long as everybody knew what they were gettin' into. For what I'm pretty sure is your first ..." He paused a little, waited 'til I nodded. "For your first, I think that's the kind of thing you should know before anything happens. I'm sorry if that's forward of me."

Forward of him. God. There were times when he really was such an old-world gentleman, my boss. I looked away from him for a minute. Looked back at the stage, at the woman singing a new song, all sad eyes and bottomless voice, and white knees that a gal just longed to touch. For the first time in that gal's life, maybe, but more than she had ever longed for anything else before. I looked back at him. I had my jaw set, and all my stubbornness in my eyes, and he laughed a bit just to see it. He knew right then what I was gonna say.

"I'm not lookin' for a picket fence, boss," I told him, tryin' on a smile myself. "Whatever that means. I don't need permanent. I just ... I just want to find out what I've been missing all this time. I've never looked at anyone like I looked at her when we walked in here. I just want to see ... if that's the way I wanna live my life. Ya know?"

His eyes went all crinkly. Smilin' sad, like always. He lifted my hand up, pressed a little kiss to my knuckles, and then he took my beer bottle out of my other hand, guided me gently off my bar stool, and turned me to face the gal of my dreams. He put a hand in the small of my back and gave me a little push just as Magnolia finished her song.

_I'm telling ya, friend, your search is at an end / 'cause I'm the one you're looking for._

"Then go get her, darlin'," he told me quietly, a laugh in the back of his voice. "If it doesn't work out, I'll be right here for ya. And if it _does_ , well. I guess I'll be pickin' ya up from the Rex tomorrow mornin', huh?"

I flushed beet red again, but I staggered forward a step just as Magnolia came down the ramp at the end of her set, Nick's gentle chuckle ringing in my ears, and managed not to look too ridiculous as I slid into a seat beside her at the other end of the bar. I guess I looked a little obvious, going from one end of the bar to the other all sudden like that, but at least by the time she turned to look at me I wasn't bright red any more. I gave a second's worth of thought about tryin' for suave, but the fact is I'm no Nick Valentine, and some bit of me that'd been hangin' around him for years whispered that I shouldn't make a dame promises I wouldn't be able to keep. Suave would've been a lie. I thought maybe I'd try earnest instead.

"Sorry to bother you, miss," I said, trying not to fiddle too much from anxiety. "I, uh. I just wanted you to know, that was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. And, well. I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I didn't know people could be that beautiful."

She blinked at me, a strange little half-smile on her face. "Well," she said. "You're a straightforward one, aren't ya sweetheart? You sure don't beat around the bush."

I flushed, yet _again_ , looking down and fiddling with my scarf. "I'm sorry, ma'am. If I'm bothering you, you only have to say so and I'll leave you alone. I just ... I really mean it. You're the first person ... that's ever looked that beautiful to me. I just thought I'd say it, that's all."

She didn't answer for a long second, and I was shuffling around, getting ready to get up and leave, when suddenly ... Suddenly there was a hand on my knee, pale against the pink of my skirt, and when I looked up there were tired eyes and a strange half-smile looking out at me. 

"You don't need to go anywhere," Magnolia said, with her drownin' voice and her smile getting just the smallest bit deeper as I watched. "Well. Unless you wanted to get out of here, that is. Maybe keep me company a ways? What do you say, sweetheart. I'm all finished up here. You want to take a little walk with me?"

I blinked, almost unable to believe it for a second, and then I _beamed_. Way too wide, I think, it's probably for the best that I hadn't tried suave from the start, but I couldn't help it. I really, really couldn't. It wasn't much, but she'd just promised me all I'd wanted, and more than I honestly thought I'd get. Even if all it was was a walk under the irradiated stars with the lady who'd showed me what I was, I'd have taken it in a heartbeat. Did, in point of fact. Right then and there.

"I'd like that," I said, happy and breathless while I beamed at her. "Miss Magnolia, I'd like that very much." 

And maybe there was a shadow in her eyes just then, a hint of worry for how she'd have to let me down, but she didn't let it stop her. She took my hand, my lady in the red dress, and led me out past Nicky and Nate at the bar, out the door of the Third Rail, and into a whole new world I'd never seen before. She made a woman outta me, that night. Kisses in the shadows of Goodneighbour, and other things altogether in a bed at the Hotel Rexford. She made me feel things I'd never thought I'd feel, things I hadn't known it was _possible_ to feel. All the things I'd spent my life missin' out on. Magnolia showed them to me that night.

She left me in the morning, just like the boss had said. She said sorry, sweetheart, but her one real lover was the stage. She looked like she expected me to be disappointed. Angry, maybe, upset. She looked like she wanted to hightail it outta there before I could cry all over her dress. I'm not that kinda gal, though. I'm smarter than that. I know some people are like that, I knew what I was gettin' into, and I didn't see anything wrong.

I took her hand, pressed a kiss to it that woulda done Nicky proud, and thanked her from the bottom of my heart for everything she'd showed me. It ain't often a dame shows up and shows you who you are right outta the blue. I thanked her for that. Seemed like the least I could do.

And you know, when she left me? When she walked out that door, walked past Nick waitin' patiently for me on the other side of it?

She sent me one last smile, like a woman who'd found what she'd been lookin' for.


End file.
